Patient supports are, of course, very well known in the art. A multitude of styles have been developed over the years to accommodate the needs of the medical profession. One such need relates to the obstetrics and gynecological field of medical practice and, more particularly, to the needs of the physician to access the pelvic region of the patient for examination purposes. Oftentimes the physical construction of the patient support gets in the way of such examinations and the foot supports are not always conveniently available for deployment by the physician.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a patient support having a pair of selectively longitudinally deployable foot supports conveniently stored underneath the patient support surface, but yet readily accessible by the physician for deployment and patient use.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support, as aforesaid, wherein the foot supports are each laterally shiftable toward and away from each other to facilitate patient comfort.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support, as aforesaid, wherein the foot supports are sturdy and durable and require a minimum of maintenance.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support, as aforesaid, wherein the foot support includes a foot receiving platform having a surface configured to the bottom surface of a typical patient's foot, the platform being yieldably supported to facilitate flexure of the patient's foot.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support, as aforesaid, which additionally includes an elevating mechanism for raising and lowering the patient support surface relative to a base, the patient support surface having a drop leaf foot section configured to move to a vertically upright position leaving the space between the pair of foot rests open for physician access to the pelvic region of the patient.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a patient support, as aforesaid, wherein the drop leaf foot section includes a mechanism for preventing the foot end of the drop leaf foot section from engaging the floor surface on which the patient support device is supported when the patient surface is lowered with respect to the base.